WEBVTT - Made with VTT Creator 00:05.351 --> 00:29.475 position:50% align:middle We were in our apartment. As always, Yevheniia got everyone up. There’s no shelter in our building. So we picked a spot that we thought would be the safest. 00:29.475 --> 00:49.586 position:50% align:middle Basically, they went along with what we’d decided. We gathered the kids and sat in the little hallway by the entrance following the “two-wall rule.” 00:49.586 --> 01:05.163 position:50% align:middle After the explosion on the neighbouring street, Yevheniia must have panicked; got scared. And the next place we thought would be the safest 01:05.163 --> 01:34.237 position:50% align:middle was the stairwell landing. They ran there. I lingered behind. And just as Yevheniia called me: “Come down here to us”… The moment she said that, there was an explosion. 01:34.237 --> 01:51.594 position:50% align:middle At that moment, my first thought was: “Thank God they went downstairs.” Emilia was 6, Daria was 18, Yaryna was 21, and Yevheniia was 43. 01:51.594 --> 02:07.612 position:50% align:middle I was sure they were safe. My name is Yaroslav Bazylevych. I’m from Lviv, and I’m 49 years old now. I consider myself, or rather, 02:07.612 --> 02:19.299 position:50% align:middle I considered all of us to be native Lviv residents. Because, although certainly not all of them, but several my great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers were, 02:19.299 --> 02:32.561 position:50% align:middle after all, from Lviv. Franko’s son was married to my great-grandfather’s sister. But that’s not a close relation. In other words, it’s not the main family; 02:32.561 --> 02:42.759 position:50% align:middle we’re not related by blood. We’re sort of in-laws. I don’t know what the correct term is. I wasn’t under the rubble; I was in the apartment. 02:42.759 --> 02:59.874 position:50% align:middle And, as a result, I was trapped because the staircase had collapsed. It was the fourth floor, or maybe even the fifth. And, as a result, I couldn’t go downstairs… 02:59.874 --> 03:16.289 position:50% align:middle There was nothing. The apartment was, let’s just say, destroyed. I couldn’t find my phone because the blast wave had thrown it so far away that I couldn’t find it at all. 03:16.289 --> 03:32.468 position:50% align:middle Later, they found the girls’ phones, but not mine. I was moving around the apartment for about an hour and a half to two hours. At that moment, I didn’t have… 03:32.468 --> 03:51.460 position:50% align:middle I lost sight in one eye right then. So I couldn’t see anything out of one eye. And there were also some… minor cuts, so to speak. Then there was a fire ladder 03:51.460 --> 04:06.968 position:50% align:middle or some kind of platform. I climbed down. And I received first aid there. There were some bandages on me, covering something… 04:06.968 --> 04:28.370 position:50% align:middle And then I waited while the rescuers clear the rubble. I don’t know who they found first. Meanwhile… It all took about four hours. And right when they cleared the rubble, I was told… 04:28.370 --> 04:48.199 position:50% align:middle Daria was taken away sooner, and there was a hope she was taken to a hospital somewhere. Emilia was supposed to turn 7 on September 15. 04:48.199 --> 05:08.235 position:50% align:middle And it just so happened that Yevheniia was supposed to go abroad to study. And we were discussing it with Daria… She was actually getting a little more involved 05:08.235 --> 05:20.849 position:50% align:middle at that time… I mean, she was helping out with all that. She was supposed to organize some kind of quests for the kids, for the celebration. Something like that. 05:20.849 --> 05:38.325 position:50% align:middle We went on vacation together to Italy. In late July - early August. Yaryna got her driver’s license when she was 18. I trained her a little. 05:38.325 --> 05:57.580 position:50% align:middle And she was the one who drove everyone 2,000 kilometres to Italy by car. Yevheniia was… She had a wide range of interests. 05:57.580 --> 06:15.238 position:50% align:middle In recent years, she’d been building a successful career in IT and digital marketing. She was also interested in yoga and was a yoga instructor. 06:15.238 --> 06:40.626 position:50% align:middle And she made jewellery out of polymer clay. She did makeup. She had been interested in perfumery her whole life. She had a very sharp sense of smell, 06:40.626 --> 07:07.398 position:50% align:middle and she could define all ingredients of a perfume and say just how the scent unfolded. In May 2024, she was in Provence for training. And on September 11, 07:07.398 --> 07:19.884 position:50% align:middle she was supposed to go to a perfume exhibition in Florence, and then on to Paris for another training. The tickets had already been purchased, 07:19.884 --> 07:41.022 position:50% align:middle and this was supposed to be her trip. But it never happened. Yaryna also had a lot of plans of her own. She worked at “European Youth Capital” as a program manager. 07:41.022 --> 07:50.563 position:50% align:middle In addition, she graduated from the Institute of Computer Science at Lviv Polytechnic National University and also worked part-time in IT. 07:50.563 --> 08:04.625 position:50% align:middle Daria was a sophomore studying cultural studies at KUC (Kyiv University of Culture). And Emilia had just started second grade in elementary school. 08:04.625 --> 08:24.746 position:50% align:middle She took piano lessons at music school and practised swimming. I think the support of my friends and family really helped me. We were very outgoing. 08:24.746 --> 08:45.474 position:50% align:middle I’m lucky to have so many friends. During those first weeks and months, I would have appointments at 12 [noon], 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. on the same day, 08:45.474 --> 09:08.125 position:50% align:middle I was meeting with different people. I was in therapy, not right away, but from around March of last year until the end of 2025. 09:08.125 --> 09:29.502 position:50% align:middle And it really helped me come to terms with everything that happened and cope with the loss. It’s very difficult, you know? I don’t have a “right” way, so to speak, 09:29.502 --> 09:38.543 position:50% align:middle of how things should be. I don’t know how it’s supposed to be. I know what bothers me. I know that when I’m walking down the street and people recognize me, 09:38.543 --> 09:56.043 position:50% align:middle it bothers me. Yes, I understand that these are gestures of support, expressions of respect, and so on. But all of this… I didn’t want any kind of popularity at all, 09:56.043 --> 10:11.848 position:50% align:middle and now here I am, this kind of “popularity” because of the tragedy, because of all this… Well, in the end, I still don’t know how I’m supposed to act. 10:11.848 --> 10:32.762 position:50% align:middle Because sometimes I’m in a good mood. I think I have the right to be in a good mood at certain moments. And the moment someone recognizes me… 10:32.762 --> 10:48.384 position:50% align:middle What then? And so I imagine what that person is thinking about me: “My God, something like that happened to him, and he’s laughing,” for example, at certain moment. 10:48.284 --> 11:10.181 position:50% align:middle And it’s kind of a mixed bag of feelings, you know? I don’t know how to act in such situations. Am I supposed to immediately behave like I’m struggling? 11:10.181 --> 11:20.553 position:50% align:middle Well, how am I supposed to react to that? I’d really prefer it if that didn’t happen at all. But in a way, I’m supposed to be restrained. Or, let’s put it this way… 11:20.553 --> 11:33.837 position:50% align:middle Of course, maybe I’m just imagining this, but there are certain expectations… I mean, someone puts themselves in my shoes and says: “I wouldn’t have survived that; 11:33.837 --> 11:49.689 position:50% align:middle I would have taken my own life. But he didn’t.” In other words, it’s like I’m failing to live up to someone else’s expectations. I sometimes feel that way. 11:49.689 --> 12:05.595 position:50% align:middle It’s as if I’m failing to live up to someone’s expectations by having survived. For me, justice at this stage is… I realize that Ukraine, as a state, will be safe only when 12:05.595 --> 12:19.953 position:50% align:middle there is no russia that’s bigger than us. In other words, for me, it’s the collapse of the russian empire, if I may put it that way. The breakup of the russian federation 12:19.953 --> 12:36.939 position:50% align:middle into smaller countries that won’t pose any threat. As long as it exists in its current form, the threat to Ukraine will always be there. 12:36.939 --> 13:06.085 position:50% align:middle There could be 30, 50 or 10 years of peace. Or maybe just a six-month truce. But they’ll attack anyway. My great-grandfather here in Lviv… He was a lawyer in Poland. 13:06.085 --> 13:18.639 position:50% align:middle And he was very… Back then, there was a term for it “Russophile.” He wanted to move to Ukraine and applied for a visa to the Soviet Union. 13:18.639 --> 13:35.396 position:50% align:middle And when the first “Ruski” (that’s what they’re called here) came here in 1939, he was overjoyed; he was the editor of the newspaper “Free Ukraine”. 13:35.396 --> 13:52.648 position:50% align:middle But by February 1940, he was already in prison on charges of espionage. And he never came out of prison. And after June 22, when the Germans arrived here 13:52.648 --> 14:07.711 position:50% align:middle and opened the prisons… They opened them on July 7, and his great-grandfather was not found because all the corpses that they (the “Ruski”) had left in the cells had rotted. 14:07.711 --> 14:20.395 position:50% align:middle And in fact, he was not found. For me, Bucha wasn’t something unexpected. Because I knew what to expect from the russians. Everyone was amazed: 14:20.395 --> 14:31.906 position:50% align:middle How could they do such a thing? Are they animals? They are animals, and I knew that. Because they did the exact same thing here in 1939, and before that - 14:31.906 --> 14:51.530 position:50% align:middle during the Holodomor. It’s all the same. They never change. And they do the same thing in Bucha, Mariupol, and elsewhere. I haven’t found any meaning in my next life yet. 14:51.530 --> 15:15.190 position:50% align:middle I’ve divided it up: I had my first life - childhood and adolescence, then my college years. And then there was my second life. That was family life. 15:15.190 --> 15:36.086 position:50% align:middle And now it’s completely different. And I haven’t found any meaning in it yet - why I’m here. Right now I’m just killing time, to be honest, as bad as that may sound. 15:36.086 --> 15:53.442 position:50% align:middle It’s just a routine. For example, sports, studying English, work… I often see my friends who support me. I’ve come to such a conclusion: 15:53.442 --> 16:12.838 position:50% align:middle what I can do more or less effectively is to preserve the memory of my family and my girls. And one such tool, if I can call it that way, is the establishment of a scholarship 16:12.838 --> 16:27.115 position:50% align:middle fund in partnership with UCU (Ukrainian Catholic University) - the Endowment in Memory of Yevheniia, Yaryna, Daria, and Emilia. Last year, 16:27.115 --> 16:39.094 position:50% align:middle this scholarship fund awarded two scholarships - one for a full year and one for half a year - to young women from the [Department of] 16:39.094 --> 16:56.154 position:50% align:middle Cultural Studies who are studying at UCU. This is one way to preserve their memory. 16:56.154 --> 17:22.681 position:50% align:middle We’ve held many memorial evenings dedicated to the girls’ birthdays. In addition, Daria’s friend (a classmate of my middle daughter) made a film about 17:22.681 --> 17:41.302 position:50% align:middle our relationship and about the girls - each one individually. It was screened on the anniversary of the tragedy. I also tried to bear witness, to help in some way, 17:41.302 --> 18:04.596 position:50% align:middle and to advocate for Ukraine’s interests before Western politicians. Still, I think I felt supported. I was in Berlin at the Bundestag, I was in The Hague, 18:04.596 --> 18:20.559 position:50% align:middle I spoke before a committee of the Dutch parliament, I was in Washington, and I attended the Warsaw Security Forum. There are certain things we’re collecting. 18:20.559 --> 18:48.887 position:50% align:middle For example, we’ve raised funds. I believe it was 1.6 million for the Special Operations Forces (SOF). The most recent fundraiser was also for the units… 18:48.887 --> 19:05.840 position:50% align:middle In other words, there are always some fundraising efforts underway. And if I can help with that through my public profile, then I do so.